Starcraft MMO is only $80,000 from becoming a reality

Upheaval Arts shoots to have the mod completed next year.

The developers of the long-awaited Starcraft MMO have begun a Kickstarter campaign to finish development of the game. Upheaval Arts is shooting to raise $80,000 for a beta release of Starcraft Universe, and the reach goals include PvP zones, an Act II of the game, and new regions to explore.

The developers of the MMO released a prologue mod earlier this year named Starcraft Universe: Chronicles of Fate. The mod was solo-oriented but introduced players to the concepts of the game, including playable classes and character customization.

According to the Kickstarter page, there will be eight classes (four Terran, four Protoss) available to play, as well as customizable weapons, crafting systems, and vehicle combat. The game will include fully voiced cutscenes as well as music. If fundraisers hit the $100,000 “reach” goal, the developers will add Zerg character classes as well.

Once the Starcraft Universe mod is released, the creators state that players will not need to have purchased a full version of Starcraft II. All they’ll need is the “starter edition,” which is a free download from Blizzard, according to Kotaku. The estimated delivery time for the game, per the Kickstarter page, is January 2014.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

Are the IP legalities addressed on the kickstarter page? Can't access it from work.

"While Blizzard is not directly affiliated with this project's production, we do communicate with them to submit bug reports and make technical requests. They have given their blessing/permission for us to launch this Kickstarter, and they are supporting our efforts by featuring SCU as an Arcade Highlight."

Are the IP legalities addressed on the kickstarter page? Can't access it from work.

"While Blizzard is not directly affiliated with this project's production, we do communicate with them to submit bug reports and make technical requests. They have given their blessing/permission for us to launch this Kickstarter, and they are supporting our efforts by featuring SCU as an Arcade Highlight."

Seems pretty neat, and I'm glad that Blizzard has granted their blessing upon the dev team.

I'd be thrilled to explore the Starcraft universe on foot, but I'm just hoping that its gameplay won't be too WoW-like; I've played that game (and that style of game) more than I care to repeat yet another time.

With Blizzard changing their SC2 policy. They made their "Spawning Pool" feature so people can play the full game while a friend is on at the some time. Not sure if its a Heart of the Swarm specific feature. But you'll need someone you know to have bought the game and will be playing the game at the same time.

So technically you only need the starter edition. You can't play this game alone. Its a SC2 arcade game.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

I think the question was regarding server costs. Since it's just an SC2 "map" though I'm pretty sure it would make use of Blizzard's servers.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Which has nothing to do with the question, but it is a fine system indeed.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Hmm, interesting. I didn't realize the Starcraft II map editor could do something this ambitious. Now I might have a reason to reinstall the game. Didn't even bother with Heart of the Swarm, one of the first Blizzard games I didn't bother buying.

I'll be stunned if this doesn't get shut down when it gets popular, or completely taken over by Blizzard once they smell the money though.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Which has nothing to do with the question, but it is a fine system indeed.

Then what was the question? If it was about server costs as zyyn suggested then the OP still deserves a bit of fun to be made at his expense because its made clear this is through battle.net The only real money question is why blizzard is letting people play with the free 'starter edition' on their servers for this mod. As it would seem to generate them no money or even purchases of star craft 2; perhaps the free exposure is enough to justify the costs.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Which has nothing to do with the question, but it is a fine system indeed.

he answered it. they are using kickstarter to finance it.Blizzard foot the bill for the rest.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Which has nothing to do with the question, but it is a fine system indeed.

Then what was the question? If it was about server costs as zyyn suggested then the OP still deserves a bit of fun to be made at his expense because its made clear this is through battle.net The only real money question is why blizzard is letting people play with the free 'starter edition' on their servers for this mod. As it would seem to generate them no money or even purchases of star craft 2; perhaps the free exposure is enough to justify the costs.

Since it seems like such a hot topic... the question was regarding server costs. The Kickstarter didn't make it very clear that this was a Starcraft 2 mod (nor this article). The Kickstarter also says it is completely free to play and that you can play it _without purchasing Starcraft 2_. I'm not entirely sure how that works on a starter edition, but it certainly confuses the issue and doesn't make it sound as simple as your derogatory comment. Fortunately you seem to understand the issue when you mention that it would not "generate them .. money".

The only real money question is why blizzard is letting people play with the free 'starter edition' on their servers for this mod. As it would seem to generate them no money or even purchases of star craft 2; perhaps the free exposure is enough to justify the costs.

I'm guessing it is the same reason they let people play Wow "free to 20" = competing with FTP games requires letting people play a limited version of their non-FTP games.

1. Could be the next DOtA... 2. They are logging-on to BattleNet to play this = they are not playing a competitor's game.3. If they like playing for free, they might pay for the "full" version - especially if there are targeted sales offered to them.

Blizzard owns everything in their games. If you put something into their " Map editor" They own it immediately. They want people to raise 80k and create content for them that is handed right to them. What you have here is a situation where both sides know exactly what is happening. These people are getting paid to create content. Blizzard wants it to happen because everybody wins. The people who donated win because they are giving money to make something happen that they want to make happen. The people who have the kickstarter campaign are getting paid to develop an add on or whatever you want to call it. Blizzard can keep using the content if it works or throw it out. Their "server costs" are not really at risk at all.

As a contributor on StarCraft Universe, perhaps I could remedy some misconceptions.

This is an MMO? How does that even work?It's not so much an MMO as it is an "MMO-like experience"; several technical limitations make an MMO on a StarCraft 2 platform impossible without the use of a third-party solution. It is MMO-like at least insofar it features an MMO-inspired interface and online multiplayer gameplay with persistent characters which progress in an RPG fashion by means of slaughtering countless space-boars and alien raid bosses. Most accurate would be to say it focuses on the raid instance experience, and avoids the extraneous shit like fetch quests and transit.

Blizzard will litigate this out of existence when they find out about it. Prepare to get DMCA'd.That actually happened back when there was a Youtube video demoing "World of StarCraft"; some Blizzard legal folks had the video taken down because they didn't know it was made with the editor and believed it had appropriated SC2 assets for a commercial game, which by way of the Streisand Effect brought it to public attention in the first place.Following that, the team established a rapport with some folks at Blizzard, and one may rest assured that the Kickstarter and all the donor benefits therein have been explicitly approved by the company's reps.

Free-to-play game on StarCraft 2? Stop making words at me and start making sense.StarCraft Universe is played on StarCraft 2's Arcade via Battlenet, and is accessible from the free StarCraft 2 Starter Edition. There's no monetization strategy, no pay-to-play pain features, there's no sad zergling popping up in a menu begging you to donate. Shockingly, it is free to play in the literal sense those words once had.

Uh, but there's a Kickstarter for it. How is that "free"?StarCraft Universe is currently available on the SC2 Arcade now, as I recall, but it's basically an introduction to the setting, the narrative, and the mechanics, That much is definitely, inarguably free. The Kickstarter is intended, it's my understanding, to help the devs complete the mod without resorting to living as vagrants, camped out at Starbucks, eating the best textiles no-money can buy.

Why the hell should I pledge cash to a vanity project like a mod?That is an excellent question.

According to the Kickstarter it is free to play. Any idea how they plan on financing this game?

Apparently there is a website where you can post ideas and beg people to donate increasing levels of money in exchange for various perks in the end product based on the amount of money given. They're using this website to try finance 80k dollars.

Which has nothing to do with the question, but it is a fine system indeed.

Then what was the question? If it was about server costs as zyyn suggested then the OP still deserves a bit of fun to be made at his expense because its made clear this is through battle.net The only real money question is why blizzard is letting people play with the free 'starter edition' on their servers for this mod. As it would seem to generate them no money or even purchases of star craft 2; perhaps the free exposure is enough to justify the costs.

Since it seems like such a hot topic... the question was regarding server costs. The Kickstarter didn't make it very clear that this was a Starcraft 2 mod (nor this article). The Kickstarter also says it is completely free to play and that you can play it _without purchasing Starcraft 2_. I'm not entirely sure how that works on a starter edition, but it certainly confuses the issue and doesn't make it sound as simple as your derogatory comment. Fortunately you seem to understand the issue when you mention that it would not "generate them .. money".

Direct from the Kickstarter page in big font:

A free to play science fiction Multi-Player Online RPG played through Battle.net on StarCraft II.

They weren't exactly trying to hide the fact they aren't hosting servers themselves.

Are the IP legalities addressed on the kickstarter page? Can't access it from work.

"While Blizzard is not directly affiliated with this project's production, we do communicate with them to submit bug reports and make technical requests. They have given their blessing/permission for us to launch this Kickstarter, and they are supporting our efforts by featuring SCU as an Arcade Highlight."

This is where Kickstarter has become a bad influence on the gaming community. In the past we made mods because we loved games. Now people making a mod that doesn't look particularly great IMHO are taking $80,000. That's insane.

This is never going to be a proper MMO. And I worry that some of the people or all of the people contributing don't understand the limitations of the SC2 engine and what the modders are actually capable of delivering. They may be expecting something polished and well made and that's just not going to be delivered.

This is exciting news. I hope this will show the minds at Blizzard that there is real demand for a Starcraft-themed MMO. Not just another WoW clone though. Lets get back to the MMO roots like Everquest and DAoC in terms of unique ideas and difficulty.

I am curious to see how the game play will pan out and how the team implements PvP.

The article should include the fact that you can currently play the "Prologue" if you own SC2 -- it's in the Arcade section.

It's definitely a good start utilizing the SC2 engine. And for the 30 minutes I played it was fun!Coming from WoW though... the camera controls are not so great, and that alone would kill it for me. :-/

I don't see the appeal for someone to ask for money to develop a mod for a game that they don't own the IP for. At the end of they day, they don't even OWN THE CODE. Blizzard Activision could essentially take the work completed after the $80k and start their own development off of the hard work these fine gentlemen are doing and sell it under a name that they've copyrighted.

Granted, there is some humanity left in the company, so it's more likely that they hire the developers to continue their work, but $80,000 to develop a game where no money is to be made by the developers relying on a system they don't own just seems like a waste to me. IMO, if you want to crowd fund something, make something you create, own and can at least create some income off of. Time is not free, my money is not free, and although the idea is awesome, it just doesn't make sense to me.

Blizzard should have made World of Starcraft an MMO that was a huge missed opportunity. I have 0 interest in PvP and that market seems to becoming more and more congested every day.

Always thought that was the whole goal behind Titan, a Starcraft MMO. The darn thing has been re-started three times already so only time will tell.

However, I am hoping they break convention from the traditional MMO mechanics. From my own point of view, the theme park gameplay has to evolve or die. The MMO worlds have to be more dynamic. Most current MMOs are just static, monster wandering without a purpose, worlds with no real sense of wonder or mystery. Nothing against current games or players that still love the grind. I just think the industry could benefit from a different, fresh take on the genre.

Blizzard owns everything in their games. If you put something into their " Map editor" They own it immediately. They want people to raise 80k and create content for them that is handed right to them. What you have here is a situation where both sides know exactly what is happening. These people are getting paid to create content. Blizzard wants it to happen because everybody wins. The people who donated win because they are giving money to make something happen that they want to make happen. The people who have the kickstarter campaign are getting paid to develop an add on or whatever you want to call it. Blizzard can keep using the content if it works or throw it out. Their "server costs" are not really at risk at all.

This is exactly right. The kickstarter will pay for their labor, but once this hits Battle.net, Blizzard owns it by default. No purchase necessary. I'm a little surprised that Blizzard is okay with them getting paid to make a SC2 mod, but I guess it's no skin off their nose since they'll own the end product. My biggest concern is that this won't actually be any good.